Let’s explore something that affects our energy, our mood, our clarity, our emotions — and honestly, our entire life… How we eat.

And no — not what we eat. We talk about that everywhere else. Everyone has an opinion — paleo, vegan, gluten free, carnivore, keto, lemon water with unicorn tears… But today isn’t about food rules. Today is about how we eat.

Because here’s a truth we rarely hear:

We can eat the healthiest food on Earth — but if we eat it in a state of stress, distraction, or rush, our body can’t receive the food’s goodness.

And the opposite is also true — If we bring presence, peace and joy to our meals, even simple food becomes nourishing medicine.

Today’s episode on I Love Me The Podcast is for you, if you feel bloated or tired after eating, you rush meals or eat on autopilot, you want a healthier relationship with food, you want more energy, clarity and calm…

Or you’re ready to turn eating into a sacred self-love ritual.

 

Simple, inspiring lessons in self-love. Hello sweetpea, it’s Tamra here.

Ok, so you’ve probably heard the phrase:

You are what you eat.

Well…it’s actually true.

Our body becomes the food we eat.

Our skin, our bones, our hormones, our cells — they’re all built from what we feed ourself.

When you think about that…

Suddenly that avocado is not just breakfast.

It’s future-you.

That handful of blueberries?

Tomorrow’s skin cells, brain power and vitality.

Yes, what we eat matters.

But there is something equally — and often more — important:

How we eat determines how well we absorb, digest and receive nourishment.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, our digestion is governed by the Spleen, we talked about the Spleen in depth in the last episode (Episode 86: The Spleen, Later Summer & Reclaiming Your Energy).

But in a nutshell..

The Spleen is the organ of nourishment, transformation and… get this… mental processing.

Meaning:

Your spleen digests your food and your thoughts.

So if you’re eating while scrolling TikTok, stressing about emails, or speed-eating in the car… your body has to split its energy between digesting your food and digesting your life.

And what do we experience when that happens?

Bloating.
Fatigue.
Brain fog.
Low immunity.
And that ‘ugh, my stomach feels weird’ experience.

These are all signs that you’re bodies not digesting your food well.

So let’s walk through 10 loving, powerful ways to support your digestion and turn eating into the sacred, joyful ritual, it was always meant to be.

1. When You Eat… Just Eat

I know — revolutionary in 2026.

No emails.
No phone scrolling.
No finishing work while chewing.

Just… eat.

Breathe in the aromas.

Really taste what you’re putting in your mouth.

Experience the delight of the food that’s going inside your sacred temple.

Imagine telling your body:

‘This moment is for you. Because you matter.’

That, is nourishment.

2. Take Three Slow Breaths Before You Begin Eating

Breathing clears our mind.

Signals our nervous system to relax.

And gives our body the energy it needs to digest.

Yes, our body uses energy to digest food.

And breathing well, gives us energy!

Remember, if we’re in our head thinking, our body is directing it’s energy elsewhere.

This is where we can use our breath to bring us back to the present moment and stock up our energy supplies.

Three conscious breaths.

That’s it.

You’d be amazed how different a meal feels when you arrive in your body first.

Before you start eating.

And if you want to learn more about how the breath supports us, in a myriad of different ways, as well as some simple breath practices, I’ll pop some links in the show notes to my other podcast episodes on breath.

3. Sit With A Loving Posture

No hunched laptop eating.

No curled-up couch grazing like a woodland pixie, or crossing your legs and shifting your digestive organs out of alignment.

It’s really hard to move food through intestines when they resembled a kinked up garden hose!

Instead…

Sit tall, centred on your sit bones.

Feet grounded.

Heart open.

Shoulders softly melting down your back.

With your crown gently reaching towards the sky.

I have a whole episode sharing the posture that supports our internal organs; it’s Episode 69: The Posture Shift Every Woman Needs to Ease Back Pain & Enjoy Pelvic Harmony if you want to learn how to come into a relaxed position that supports digestion, and many other things that affect daily living.

What I want you to understand here, is:

Your digestive organs need space.

Think:

Open body, open digestion.

4. Eat With Joy And Gratitude

There is a plethora of scientific evidence that says when we feel happy, our body performs better.

In other words:

Joy improves digestion.

Yes, when we head into our meals in a joyful state, and actually enjoy the process of eating, our bodies have an easier time being nourished by those foods.

Now, while we don’t want to eat too much refined sugar, processed foods, coffee or alcohol…

It’s important to know this:

Our attitude to the food we eat, is everything, as it informs the Spleen of what to do with the food that goes in.

So once you decide you’re going to eat something…

Even if it’s not on the healthier side…

Do it fully.

With love.

With pleasure.

No guilt.

No ‘I shouldn’t…’

Guilt is harder to digest than chocolate cake.

So once you decide you’re going to eat something… whatever it is…

Bless the food.

Enjoy it.

Let your body receive it fully.

And if you have an iffy relationship with food, where you tend to beat yourself up for what you eat, if you overeat, or restrict your eating, have a listen to Episode 44: The Root Cause Of Binge Eating.

That’ll offer you some guidance on how to create a more healthy relationship with food.

5. Chew — A Lot

Our stomach doesn’t have teeth.

That’s why we need to chew the food for it.

Chew until the flavours open.
Chew until the body softens.
Chew like eating is an act of devotion.

Chewing not only warms the food — putting less strain on our insides — it makes digestion easier, and allows our body a far greater chance of assimilating all the good stuff that will support us in our future years.

Try 20–30 chews per bite to start.

See if you can work up to 50 chews per bite.

And if that feels too much, simply aim to chew more than you usually would.
Trust me…

Your belly will thank you.

And you’ll get to taste all the flavours of the meal.

6. Eat Until You’re Comfortably Satisfied

Not stuffed.

Not ‘Christmas coma on the couch’ full.

You want to stop eating when you’re around 75% full.

If you eat beyond that, you’re making your body work harder than it needs to, to digest all that unnecessary food you just put in it.

Think about it…

The purpose of food is to help keep us alive.

We wouldn’t put more fuel in a car than it can take, so why put more food in our body, than it can handle?

It takes about 20 minutes for the body to register that it’s full.

That’s why you want to stop when you’re around 75% full, as that will reduce your risk of overeating, and as a result, clogging up your system.

Because when we overeat we create stagnation in the body; a temporary queue of food waiting to be processed.

Our body needs to exert extra energy to deal with this excess food.

We want to preserve our energy for healing

7. Avoid Drowning Your Food

Drinking too much of anything with meals, dilutes our digestive enzymes.

Sip if you need to — but it’s better to save your hydration for between meals.

Ideally drinking at least 20 minutes before or after meals.

Your belly will process your food better, faster and easier, if it’s not swimming in a pool of liquid.

8. Keep Food Warm & Gentle

Our belly is naturally warm.

And it needs to stay warm, to be able to digest food.

So while the occasional ice cream or smoothie is ok, you don’t want them to be a regular part of your diet.

Otherwise you run the risk of weakening your digestive fire, and damaging your Spleen health.

Without the bodies ability to digest food, we miss out on important nutrients, so…the thing to remember…

Warm foods = strong digestion.

Think soups, teas, nourishing bowls.

And when you do have a gelato…

Do it with joy.

9. Eat Well Before Bedtime

Our body does its deepest repair work between 11pm—3am.

If it’s digesting food at that time, it can’t detox and renew.

So we miss out on this vital overnight clean-up.

I talk about this in depth in Episode 60: The Healing Power of a 10pm Bedtime.

Ideally, you want to aim for dinner between 5–7pm as often as you can.

That way your body is free to do all that important healing work while you’re sleeping.

The biggest change people notice when they shift to this way of eating…

Is that they have much more energy in the morning.

10. Connect With The Earth That Feeds You

As surprising as it may sound…

Food doesn’t come from supermarkets — it comes from the Earth.

So go out and touch soil.

Grow your own food, even if it’s just some mint on the windowsill.

Feel grass under your feet.

Look at your food before eating it.

When we have a deeper awareness and appreciation for how our food comes into existence and explore the seasonal produce on offer, we come more into alignment with the very essence of what we put in our body each day.

The very food that becomes us.

As you can see…

Healthy digestion isn’t just physical.

It’s emotional.
Mental.
Energetic.

It’s presence.
It’s relationship.
It’s self-honouring.

Our healthy digestion is what allows all the organs, muscles, tissues and bones of the body to be fed and nourished.

When we eat with love, we teach our body it’s worthy of nourishment.

And we begin to digest life better as well.

Because how we eat is how we live.

Fast, distracted, and tense?

Or slow, present, and grateful?

Your digestion reveals your life pace.

Your relationship with food, mirrors your relationship with yourself.

So let every meal be a moment to come home.

To soften.

To receive.

To honour the miracle that is your body.

Thank you for joining me today.

For nourishing your body with wisdom, not just food.

If your found this episode whet your appetite, I would be so grateful for a short review or rating, so we can spread these teachings far and wide.

And if you’re looking for more support on how to care for the beautiful vessel you live in, head over to my online school Getting Naked where I offer courses and one-on-one sessions to support you in coming into a healthy relationship with you.

But whatever you do moving forward, remember…

Your body loves you.

So show it some love.

Slow down.
Savour.
And receive.